Tang, Kraft Foods powdered fruit drink, last year crossed the $1 billion sales mark worldwide and Bahrain has played a major role in achieving this goal.

The GCC is the third largest Tang market globally and all of that production is carried out at Kraft Foods plant in Bahrain which opened in December 2007 and now employs more than 250 with further expansion on the cards.

Tang now joins the ranks of 11 other billion-dollar Kraft Foods brands, which in the GCC, include products such as Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates.

"Tang is right on trend with what consumers thirst for, affordability, convenience, and great taste," said Kraft Foods GCC and new markets Mena marketing director B Jayachandran.

"In the GCC, we developed exciting flavours, new packaging innovations and breakthrough marketing to help propel the brand's growth.

"Tang is now the leader in the region's powdered beverages market and also a market leader in the broader and more competitive total fruit juice market," he added.

Kraft Foods attributed the phenomenal performance of Tang to the growth in its developing markets business, which includes the GCC.

In the last two years, the size of Kraft Foods developing markets business grew some 20 per cent and now accounts for more than $12bn in annual revenues.

"In 2006, Tang was just over a $500 million brand. And over the past four years, we've nearly doubled that, making Tang Kraft Foods 12th billion-dollar icon," said Kraft Foods developing markets president Sanjay Khosla.

"Our business model in developing markets of giving local leaders freedom within a framework to act like entrepreneurs has been tremendously successful and Tang is no exception," said Khosla.

"With an entrepreneurial spirit, our Tang teams across the world connected virtually to harness our global powdered beverage technology and expertise. They used a global approach, combining the best of global and local to transform Tang," he added.-TradeArabia News Service